Chapter 58   - The Price of Our Choices

A thick tropical rain enveloped Greenside. The muddy streets soon turned into a swamp. People hurried to take cover, no one spared a glance at a kid quickly making his way out of town.

The frenetic pitter-patter of thousands of drops of rain covered every sound. Kai moved like a ghost through the streets heading for the fields.

His heart thumped in his chest. The satisfaction of a plan well executed filled him. It was exhilarating. The murderer of his father was dead, and his sister was safe. He had protected his family.

For a moment he felt at the top of the world. Then that moment passed. With each step, the euphoria lost some of its luster. The curtain of rain bore down on him, the dirt and filth he used as camouflage were washed away together with his emotions.

By the time the fields stood in front of him, elation had left place to nothingness. He had just killed a man, he should be feeling something, but he only felt empty and lost.

It was hard to keep his eyes open, maybe he was crying. It was impossible to tell in the heavy rain.

He had just killed a man…

Did he do the right thing? He did have good reasons for it, were those enough to justify his actions?

A pinging notification kept blinking in the corner of his view, he ignored it. He wasn’t ready for it yet. He didn’t want to read the Guide words giving him confirmation.

Kai did the only thing he knew and abandoned himself to cold logic. His plan had gone smoothly. Reviewing the events in his head, he looked for anything that could lead back to him.

Even if they discovered the man had been poisoned, no one in town could do an autopsy and infer something from it. The man had emptied his mug, there was nothing left to confirm he had been poisoned.

This wasn’t 21st-century Earth, the medical knowledge of the archipelago was abysmal, heart attacks and undiscovered illnesses periodically flared up. Sometimes people dropped dead for no apparent reason. That was how most of the lucky people to reach old age died.

Some experienced a slow decline, others looked full of vigor till their last moments. The best you could do was pray to the spirits to protect you and your loved ones. If you had led a good life, you would join the ranks of the ancestors watching over your descendants and the archipelago forevermore.

His dad’s murderer looked around fifty, maybe a bit younger since his filthy appearance did him no favors. It would be uncommon, but nothing that would raise more than a few eyebrows, especially with the lifestyle he led.

The biggest flaw in his plan was if the enforcers possessed skills he wasn’t aware of. Kai was counting on the fact that only the worst enforcers were sent to Greenside. The chances they would step into the filthiest part of new town to investigate were below none. As he had learned, the Republic only cared if you had status and power. That man had neither.

As for the mayor taking an interest and stepping in, Kai wasn’t worried. Elder Soluli had made his stance on new town very clear; if he could get away with it, nothing would be done.

A few people knew Kai was an alchemist, but he had never sold any poison more potent than a pseudo-red pesticide in the market. The leap was quite big.

There might be some suspicion if someone linked the dots and found out about the rumors around his father’s murder, but that was all they would be: rumors. Outlandish stories spread in Greenside every day, eventually, people grew bored and moved on to something else that took their fancy.

His family should have spent all night with Moui if Kea played her part. The hunter liked to keep a low profile, but it was known he was the best in Greenside. His words held a lot of sway. It might not be common knowledge, but anyone important knew, or strongly suspected, Moui had reached Orange ★★★.

Even if someone decided to investigate—and that was a big if—there wasn’t going to be any decisive evidence to be found. He would be long gone to the estate. Who would trek to the jungle for days to knock on a powerful mage’s door on a frail conjecture? The chain of extremely unlikely events for that to happen was so long to be ridiculous. Maybe if he had a negative Favor of a hundred, he would worry, but that was not the case, quite the opposite.

Is it truly this easy to kill a man and get away with it?

The farmland had turned into a swamp of muck. His feet were swallowed up by the mud with each step. Sneak was being strongly hampered in these conditions, but even if he were to walk a straight line to the jungle, he doubted anyone would notice in the dense rain. Kai abandoned any attempt at stealth and tried to make his way to the jungle edge as fast as he could.

There were less than a dozen trees behind him when the tropical storm died down at the same speed it first appeared. Fresh leaves and branches had been torn by the fury of the elements. The ground in the Veeryd jungle seemed to fare a bit better than the farmland under the copious amounts of rain, but it still slowed him down.

His backpack was where he left it, the branches he had used to hide it had been blown away by the wind, but the bag had remained stuck in the nook between the trees. Thankfully the waxed canvas did its job of keeping the water out. Kai took off his drenched clothes. They had already been in poor condition, and now more tears had appeared on the cheap material from his skulking around. He wrung out the water before shoving them into his pack and taking out a dry pair.

Now that he was safe, the adrenaline that had kept him going during the night was leaving his body. Kai became very conscious of how tired he felt. He had been up for almost twenty hours and had not slept much the night before. One foot in front of the other, he started heading for the estate. He was both mentally and physically exhausted, but he couldn’t rest yet.

He drank a pseudo-red energizing tonic to keep going. This one wouldn’t make him feel like he could run a marathon, but it would keep him going and had almost no side effects. He didn’t want to risk collapsing on the spot when the effects ran out.

The soggy ground of the jungle made a squelching sound with each step. Only the tiniest rays of moonlight pierced through the blanket of clouds covering the night. Kai walked for what felt like hours, hoping he was going in the right direction despite the dark.

He slipped on a wet leaf and landed with his face on the ground. There was a small flash of pain where he hit a root with his elbow, but it soon passed.

The spongy layer of soil felt like an inviting mattress, he didn’t have the strength to get up. The embrace of sleep was just a hair away. All he had to do was let go for just a moment and he could fall into a blissful oblivion.

His last wisps of willpower were only enough to stall for time. He remained there, unmoving. The idea of getting back on his feet felt like torture. His backpack was too heavy. He didn’t know how much he had walked, but the tonic ran out long ago. It must be far enough. It had to be enough.

He didn’t have the strength to continue. The feeble voice, stubbornly telling him to hang on, was heavily outnumbered by a chorus singing him to sleep. He only had to give up for one instant. Out of desperation, that small insignificant sliver of consciousness bred a simple thought.

Fuck!

Kai had already become more acquainted than he would have liked with the inhabitants of the jungle floor. The thought of something crawling on him in his sleep reversed the losing battle in his head.

Slowly, he positioned his hands on the waterlogged ground beside his head and pushed himself into a sitting position with a grunt. Looking around with tired eyes, trees and dense vegetation grew all around him. Even when the sun was at its zenith, it wasn’t easy to follow the jungle path.

Damn. Where should I go?

Inspect needed his sight to work, it was no use right now. Luckily, he had another perception skill. Dripping, rustling and strange animal calls emerged all around him as he focused on Keen Ears. He was too tired to even panic. Closing his eyes, he found what he was looking for. It was faint, but he would recognize the sound of waves crashing ashore anywhere.

Staggering on his feet, Kai hobbled in the direction of the rhythmic noise. The roar of the sea became more distinct as he got closer. The ground changed texture as more and more sand appeared under his feet. Finally, he saw the glint of the moons' rays reflecting on the surface of the dark expanse.

This was far enough. His legs gave in, and he slumped on the sandy beach. He curled up and fell asleep.

* * *

It wasn’t the sun which woke him up, but the itching of the sand against his skin. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was the brown wax canvas of his backpack he unconsciously used to shield his eyes from the light.

He wished to fall back into the embrace of Morpheus and forget his problems, but his mind was already spinning in motion. It was late morning. A pleasant breeze blew on his head.

Right… I’m basically bald.

His body was stiff, he performed some light stretching exercises to get the blood flowing. Looking over himself, he had ruined another pair of clothes with his nightly stumbling through the forest.

The itch of sand and dirt reminded him of why he woke up, taking off his clothes he didn’t hesitate to jump into the sea. Instead of swimming, he stood still, the seawater helping him float, the waves pushing him back and forth. Kai stared at the clear sky, not a cloud in sight.

A subdued twinkle in the corner of his eyes reminded him he couldn’t escape reality for long. There was no point postponing it any longer.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Assassination (lv1) – Choose a target, formulate a plan, strike without warning and, especially, don’t get caught.

*Ding*

New Feat: Schemer – Kill a sapient target far stronger than you without getting caught. You are awarded: +1 Favor!

Looking at his gains Kai felt disgusted with himself. He was being rewarded for killing a man. Maybe someone who deserved it, but still… The fact the Guide rewarded such behavior was alarming.

Some would look at the point of Favor and say it meant the spirits were with him. That was a lie. The blessing he received proved the spirits had something to do with the seventh stat. From there saying the two things coincided was foolish.

The Guide worked on its own rules, maybe even gods had to abide by them. He managed to do something difficult, so he had been rewarded. As simple as that. There was no moral judgment or approval behind that.

Kai dismissed the notifications. He planned and killed a man in cold blood. There were valid reasons why he chose to do it, but it didn’t change what he had done.

He left the sea and resumed his march. He had no idea how far he had walked, but there was a long way ahead of him.

Kai wished he could lose himself in the exhaustion of the journey, but those notifications kept resurfacing into his mind.

What have I done?

Would the person who died in a hospital bed recognize him now?

Were there people who would miss the man he killed? Even the worst thugs were someone’s son or daughter. Kai tried to push the thought down, but it kept coming back.

A man who got drunk alone in the shittiest pub of Greenside wasn’t likely to have many friends. Maybe he had done him a favor. He remembered the night he found Kea. The man had seen the dagger in his sister's hand but kept provoking her. Did he wish to die or was he setting up a trap to harm his sister?

Did it even matter in the end? It wasn’t something he had considered when making his choice. He didn’t know anything about the man. There had been no time. His only thoughts had been about avenging his father and protecting his family no matter the price.

The journey to the estate proceeded painfully slow and offered few distractions. His mood became more grim and morose with each passing day.

All he had wanted was to become stronger, to gain the power to protect himself and his family. They wouldn’t be at the mercy of the governor or some random criminal any longer. Was this the price he had to pay? Crossing a line he could come back over.

Kai spotted the path forking to the estate. That was the whole reason why he came here in the first place, to stop being the weak useless kid. He had wished so hard to become stronger, to change. Now for the first time, he wondered if he had made the right decision.

He was on his way to gaining the strength he had craved for so long. The power to explore Elydes and protect those he held dear. The question was if the person who emerged at the end would still be him.